Summoning the Archive: a Symposium on the Periodical, Printed Matter, and Digital Archiving
The printing and distribution of the avant-garde magazine, illustrated weekly, and underground zine have developed in the twentieth century in tandem with technological advancements in printing and access to these technologies in various regions, gaining traction in different parts of the world at different times based on economic, social, and political conditions. At its best, the magazine is an efficient, relatively affordable (for both publisher and consumer) vehicle for the artists and intellectuals it represents, and has the capacity to innovate with new technologies and engage in pressing social, political, and artistic issues. This is even more true now, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, as we observe new models for content, design, and distribution of the periodical or magazine published on-line, which has the potential to involve an even wider audience, and host a variety of multi-media content. The magazine thus continues to be a leading platform for social and political engagement, and artistic innovation.
Corresponding to a turn towards the digital, the field of Periodical Studies has gained traction as it situates the magazine as a cultural product that incorporates text, image, and graphic design toward various political, social, artistic, and pedagogical ends. With large scale projects dedicated to digitizing print based magazines, such as the Blue Mountain project at Princeton University or the Modernist Journals Project at Brown, and a concurrent turn towards digital mapping and data visualization, periodicals that were once sequestered in the archive now have the capacity to reach a wider audience, and make visible previously overlooked networks and connections enacted within and across the magazines.
Summoning the Archive: a Symposium on the Periodical, Printed Matter, and Digital Archiving, hosted by NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge, will bring together publishers, editors, artists, archivists, librarians, and scholars from the Social Sciences and Humanities around various methodologies and archival practices, and culminate with a Print Fest, featuring several independent zines and presses.
Friday, May 12
12.30-2pm | The Periodical as (Political) Network
Moderator: MC Hyland
Teja Varma Pusapati, “Transatlantic Abolitionism in the Periodical Press: Harriet Martineau’s Correspondence for New York’s National Anti-Slavery Standard“
Kenan Tekin, “Printing Press, Periodicals, and Formations of Secularism”
Piotr M. Szpunar, “Archiving ISIS: Dabiq, Rumiyah and the Clarion Project”
2.15-3.45pm | Making the Cut: Radical Collage and the Performance of Failure
Moderator: Meghan Forbes
Nana Ariel, “One-Time Periodicals, Unrealized Manifestos: The Importance of Documenting Failures, and ‘Failure’ as a Little-Magazine Ethos”
Yvonne Garrett, “Punk #AF: The Importance of Materiality and DIY (Self) Production in Feminist Periodicals of the 20th and 21st Centuries”
Alex Wermer-Colan, “Cutting Up the Digital Archive”
4-5.30pm | Archived Communities: Feminist and Queer Politics in Periodicals of the 60s, 70s and 80s
Moderator: Velina Manolova
Meredith Benjamin, “Editing Women’s Culture: Feminist Politics and Poetics in Chrysalis“
Margaret Galvan, “Archiving Wimmen: Collectives, Networks, & Comix”
Melina Moore, “Mapping the ‘Real’: Emerging Transnetworks in Transvestia“
6-8pm | Keynote & Reception
Jenna Freedman, “Cited Ephemera: Zines in Research and Practice”
Saturday, May 13
9am | light catered breakfast
9.30-11am | The Objects in the Archive: Access to Print and Media Culture in the Digital Age
Moderator: Nicholas Sawicki
Zach Coble, “Collections as Data: Curation, Access, and Analysis of Library and Archival Digital Material”
Argyri Panezi, “How Copyright Rules Contribute to the Gaps in the Digital Archive“
Olympia Bhatt, “From Digitization to Aggregation: Pondering Archival Historiography in the Future”
11.15-12.45pm | Memory & Material: The Digital Archive as Place
Moderator: Siera Dissmore
Diana Anselmo, “Recto-Verso: The Print Representations & Private Fan Artifacts of Movie-Loving Girls in Early Twentieth Century America”
Camilla Salvaneschi, “Art Magazines and Memory: Self-Archiving Practices”
María Cabrera Arús, “Cuba Material: Creating an Archive of Cuban State Socialist Material Culture”
1pm | catered lunch & conference round-up
2-5pm | Print Fest
Zines and other publications from more than two dozen independent creators, including 3 DOT ZINE, Amber Atiya, Belladonna* Collaborative, The Bettys, #Blackgrlswurld ZINE, Cardboard House Press, Colectiva Cósmica, DoubleCross Press, Fournier Fine & Rare, Harlequin Creature, Homos in Herstory!/Elvis!, J. Expressions, Jamii Publishing, Kayrock Screenprinting, La Chamba Press, La Liga Zine, Louffa Press, No, Dear, The Operating System, Organism for Poetic Research, Projective Industries, Purgatory Pie Press, Sula Collective, Ugly Duckling Presse, and the Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon